Action Aid International, an anti-poverty NGO working predominantly in Africa and Asia, has been charged with racism in a dreadful decision affecting Dede Amanor-Wilks, its former Regional Director for West and Central Africa. This is the fourth time in the last few years that International Directors from Africa working for Action Aid have been fired purely as a result of racism. Dede Amanor-Wilks is a development specialist and a Pan-Africanist with 25 years experience in various professional roles. Dede was born in Tamale in the year of Ghana’s independence and spent her childhood on Legon campus. She has lived in the UK, Zimbabwe and Kenya. Besides these countries she has also studied in Ghana, Cuba, Russia and Germany. Dede began her professional life with Third World Communications at Kwame Nkrumah House in London, moving to African Concord and West Africa magazines. She went on to work as East Africa and later Francophone Africa editor at Africa Economic Digest magazine. She then took up a post as Africa regional director for Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, based in Zimbabwe. During the 1990s, Dede worked as a freelance journalist and consultant to various multilateral and bilateral organisations, including UNECA, UNICEF, UNDP, the ILO, the FAO, UNIDO, the IDRC, the Panos Institute, Irish Aid, DANIDA, the Nordic-SADC Journalism Centre, the SADC Centre for Communication and Development and the West African Newsmedia and Development Centre (WANAD). In 2007 she took up a post as Action Aid International Director for West & Central Africa, managing eleven countries. Her appointment was terminated by email on March 5th 2010. The pressure on Dede began a few days after she applied for the post of CEO, which had been advertised because the term of office of the CEO was coming to an end. Before her summary dismissal on March 5th, the then CEO of Action Aid, Ramesh Singh, and the Human Resource Director, Stanley Arumugam, asked Dede Amanor to write a resignation letter or be fired without recourse to the conditions of service of Action Aid. Dede refused to resign believing that she had merely done her duty as a concerned African. Her dismissal – part of a chain of vindictive dismissals –triggered off letters of protest and resulted in a member of the Board and General Assembly resigning. Some progressive newspaper sources can prove that the Human Resource director could not explain why Dede was fired. It is understood that the Board did not even meet her to give her the option to resign for her three months’ severance. Her dismissal is believed to have been a unilateral decision between the then CEO and the Human Resource director, both confirmed to be of the same race, at a time when Action Aid was shifting resources from Africa to Asia. The two only made the offer of three months’ severance pay after the victim had already been dismissed without due process. Action Aid has had two Asian CEOs and several European CEOs, but has never appointed an African to that role. Was it the fear that Dede Amanor was an African that caused the organisation to unlawfully dismiss her with no tenable explanation? Dede Amanor questioned the re-allocation of funds from West and Central African country programmes to better-resourced areas of the organisation. She had spoken out against the closure of African programmes and a resource allocation plan that was weighted in a manner that disadvantaged West African countries and transferred the fund to Asia. The then Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Action Aid, Ramesh Singh, Dede’s line manager, put her in the blue books for having the audacity to question the allocation of resources. In a letter to Action Aid International board chairperson, Ugandan Irene Ovonji-Odida, Dede Amanor wrote that she was “being bullied by Ramesh Singh, to resign from the organisation”. She wrote that her line manager “appears to hold against (her) the fact that (she has) expressed her opinions over matrix management and reporting lines and over whether the organisation should be moving in the direction of centralisation or decentralisation.” Through her lawyers, Albert Mumma & Associates, Dede Amanor-Wilks filed a suit against Action Aid in the Kenya Industrial Court for unfair and unlawful dismissal and racial harassment. There have been five court sittings since Action Aid failed in their bid to get the case thrown out of the Kenyan court system. Action Aid fought to get the case thrown out on the grounds that Kenya did not have jurisdiction because Action Aid is an international organisation and because the laws of England and Wales governed the claimant’s contract. The Court dismissed their arguments in a ruling delivered on 11th February 2011. The judge, Justice Rika, ruled that it would be “appalling for the Industrial Court of Kenya to abdicate its responsibility.” For that matter, the court ruled it has judicially noted the large presence of international employers in Nairobi. It recognised that it has mandatory rules of employment law that cannot be avoided through the choice of a foreign law. “The Industrial Court is ready, willing and able to enforce these rules,” the ruling said. In addition to the claimant, two witnesses have so far testified in the case. Juliana Makapan, a South African, said that Amanor-Wilks was systematically denied a slot at directors’ meetings to raise issues concerning her area of responsibility. When asked whether there was racial discrimination in these issues, Makapan responded: “I would say yes. I was part of the team and there were times when an issue was raised by Africans, it was not taken up.” The second witness, Dr Joan Awunyo-Akaba, resigned from her position as vice-chairperson of the Ghana board and member of Action Aid International’s General Assembly in June 2010. She resigned in protest over the dismissal of Dede Amanor who was guiding the Ghana board and whose “courage and conviction” had identified gaps in the way in which funds were being used. Awunyo-Akaba believes it was this action “for which Dede was dismissed”. Cross-examination of witnesses is fixed for 5th March. Cross-examination was originally scheduled to take place last August but was adjourned after the defence pleaded for more time. It was reset for November 24th, but was adjourned again. Action Aid former CEO Ramesh Singh is expected to attend the 5th March court hearing at the Industrial Court in Nairobi. A campaign to stop Action Aid racism has been launched by progressives and friends of Dede Amanor-Wilks. We are therefore calling on all African people to rally behind Dede Amanor-Wilks to fight against racial discrimination and maltreatment of Africans in their international engagements with foreign companies. Dede Amanor-Wilks holds an MPhil in Economic History, and an MA in African political economy. She was posted with her family from UK to Kenya, where she was in charge of eleven Action Aid country offices. Kweku Dadzie Email: kwekudadzie2000@gmail.com 27/02/2012